Tiffster-- I think you're pretty bold to go wading in that river. Yuck. By the time it gets to NO that water has to be nasty. But then again, all those rocks in the foreground of the last shot remind me of what they call a "beach" in the UK!

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That would be prime beach front in England - I felt very much at home, especially as it was accompanied by grey skies and incessant rain

Downtown New Orleans and it had stopped raining, these people seemed to be following us

yep, it's the tourists on the Segways, they looked relieved that it had stopped pouring

In a rare nod towards the Arts, I went in search of some and found....Banksy (look him up if you don't know this guy's art- he's incredible)

I like to think he may have used me as his inspiration

We caught up with some French friends and having sampled some cocktails, went out

we were celebrating Bastille Day and what better place than New Orleans,
We wandered back down to the Mississippi

To enjoy the fireworks

As these were going off, our group were singing the Marsellaise, but the Americans didn't seem to realise what song it is.

Then a bar, where to the french group's delight, they could smoke

and we met some of these guys

New Orleans hosts its own version of Pamplona's Running of the Bulls, except in this case the bulls are the local Roller Derby team - The Big Easy Roller Girls. On their roller skates they pursue various hapless people who are dressed as matadors in white and red through the streets of the city.

Harking back to my ride across Siberia, we ended up in a Russian themed pub, where even the loos had this sign.

Breakfast in New Orleans requires a compulsory visit to the Boulangerie for croissants, my friend Libby posing in the rain outside the shop after we bought about 10 just for us but pretended we were buying for more people!!

Back at the hosue and a suspicious character is loitering around Thelma

Turns out to be fellow Brit Biker and friend Michael Walshaw, and he was kindly donating some Kriega accessories

Thelma got a strap on dry bag, while I got the very, very cool hydration backpack

All excellent stuff and a huge thank you to Michael and the guys at Kriega

leaving the city, I somehow managed to miss the massive bridge that crosses over to the north side of the bay...sorry Bob!
Crossed another brdge in conditions that were not optimal
damn, lost those pics, back later after I have found them...

Thelma and I were getting so very wet and the visibility through the spray was so poor that I decided to stop at this picnic area for shelter - in a weird way, the rain was welcome as it had been so blisteringly hot just days ago. And on the plus side, look how clean Thelma is after all the gallons of water have landed on her. I wear a Rukka jacket and all the way through these downpours I was completely dry under it.

GredMcD
To answer your question, we were heading up to Arkansas and some hill country. First I had to cross part of Alabama, and I swear that they have people with the strongest accents manning the welcome centres. I had stopped to get a state map, but at first couldn't understand the woman behind the counter. I asked her to repeat what she said and she just looked at me as if I was an alien. We managed to communicate, I got my map and continued on my way, stopping at some great small town petrol stations for snacks to eat and a chat with staff to avoid more rain.

Luckily it had stopped raining when I needed to stop for the night, I'd reached Delhi in northern Louisiana, followed an old track and found a spot flat enough for the tent.

The mosquitoes had been bad as I put the tent up and I soon found out why in the morning, as this was behind the row of trees

The swamps gave way to corn fields

We'd arrived in Arkansas, and these little creatures were everywhere

Dead armadilloes, scattered along the roadside like discarded bowling balls, or maybe they were just sunbathing

I finally reached the Ozarks, and what pretty hills they are, I needed to gain points for the GS Giant Adventure Summit and so took a forest route, my first serious off-roading for a while. I didn't have a very good map, but the nice man at the welcome centre had made a few suggestions and pointed me in the direction of some horse trails that were suitable for motorised vehicles. What a mistake that was, in England we have bridleways for people on horses and they tend to be leisurely tracks across fields. They are sometimes shared with other track users as well, after I entered the forest, I realised this was a very different situation.

I checked the signs as I headed along this trail

I had no idea that there were bears this far south. I decided to keep moving

Easier said than done

The route ahead had some steps in it with a drop off at the bottom, I needed to try and haul rocks to make the drop off easier to negotiate. But Thelma was on a slope and I couldn't put the side stand down, hence I had to do this

I got through that bit, and the the upward slope on the other side was worse

I had no idea that there were bears this far south. I decided to keep moving

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I have a friend that lives on the edge of the Ocala Forrest in Florida. He has been troubled by bears trying to get in his dogs food stash. He said they have dozens of bear- car collisions on the roads near him.
Bears are everywhere.

Since this is not in real time , its probably safe to assume Tiffany makes it ? Does Tiffany get out alive , does she
turn around and head for the pavement , or like a good little Englishman does she press on ?

Or does the man of her dreams rescue her , and they ride off into the sun set never to be heard from again ?

What we have here is a first class cliff hanger , like a TV series that wants to make damn sure you tune in next week .

I had the opertunity to visit Hot Spring Arkansas a few years ago, nice little tourist town....I understand what you meen about the acents of the people here in the South, some can be very hard to understand, I am originaly from Long Island NY, I too get looks like I am from some other planet...as we are called down this way "Damn Yankees" it's all good, some real nice people.Enjoy your travels, I am enjoying reading about them, Cheers.Greg

I took a ride on the mule drawn carriage on one of my trips to New Orleans around the old French Quarter
when we would turn onto a street that was packed by people standing in the street partying the driver would make the mule do a danceing trott so his shoes hit the street real loud and he would yell ...get out of the way killer mule !
people would part and we made it through .......quite a show !

I hope Thelma doesn't nap too often for you. No doubt she wont stand up by herself after one of these naps.
Take care

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Rob, you know Thelma, this was her payback time, something along the lines of
"if you insist on bringing me along this crap track, then I'm going to make it as bloody difficult as I can for you"
and those sort of tactics work

Since this is not in real time , its probably safe to assume Tiffany makes it ? Does Tiffany get out alive , does she
turn around and head for the pavement , or like a good little Englishman does she press on ?

Or does the man of her dreams rescue her , and they ride off into the sun set never to be heard from again ?

What we have here is a first class cliff hanger , like a TV series that wants to make damn sure you tune in next week .

TheReaper!

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Reaper, it wasn't a deliberate cliffhanger, I was there for a very long time getting Thelma out

which afforded several photo opportunities

as for my other options...well, I'd reached the point of no return and had already decided that I wouldn't be able to get out the way I'd come in - I only got photos while I was on the "easier" bits.
As for the man of my dreams coming to rescue me, bring him on

After a prolonged sojourn in the forest doing the Horse Trail (never again), I made it back onto tarmac and eventually found these guys

ah yes, I thought, as I looked around, I must be in the right place, they're picking up GS's

The GS Giants and their adventure summit, deep in the hills at a great camping spot under the trees, fantastic food, amazing riding and good company. To my delight, there was also a creek to swim in with a rope swing over it. I caught up with some familiar faces from the previous adventure summit in Utah back in May.

Interesting ride tales each evening as everyone came back from their adventures, including the infamous Frog Bayou ride - 60 miles in 12 hours and a group of 11 riders.They also had stories about their journeys from their various home states.